


In-Law Blues

by Llybian



Series: Sink or Swim [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: F/M, Grown Up, Humor, In-Laws, Romance is hard work, You're embarrassing him, married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-17 00:33:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11840289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llybian/pseuds/Llybian
Summary: “Geez, relax, would you?” Violet said from the deckchair next to him. “You act like having to spend time with your beautiful sister-in-laws is some kind of unholy punishment or something. God!”





	In-Law Blues

Ash gripped his Ocean Spray cranberry juice and tried to imagine that he was somewhere else. It didn’t work. He was still sitting awkwardly in a deckchair on a patio in one of Cerulean City’s cafes, watching people strolling along the sidewalk with their Growlithe in tow, waiting for Misty to finish her day’s work at the gym.

“Geez, relax, would you?” Violet said from the deckchair next to him. “You act like having to spend time with your beautiful sister-in-laws is some kind of unholy punishment or something. _God!_ ”

Before he’d married Misty, he really hadn’t minded Daisy, Violet, and Lily… in small doses. Sure, they seemed a bit airheaded and worried too much about how their hair looked when they should’ve been focusing on Pokemon battles; and sure, Misty had frequently complained about them treating her like a second-class sister, but _he’d_ never personally had much reason to dislike them. Only now that he and Misty were married, they were his family too. And you can’t just have family in small doses.

The fact was, they giggled consistently, asked him a lot of awkward questions, and had taken to using the word “orgasmic” as a replacement for “awesome.” As far as Ash was concerned, using “orgasmic” even once in regular conversation was one time too many.

“Leave him alone,” Daisy said, looking at him over her sunglasses with a smile. “I’m sure he just like, can’t wait for Misty to come back so that they can like, head over to that cabin on the beach for the weekend.”

That wasn’t the case, and Ash knew better than to admit it. This weekend certainly hadn’t been his idea and he wasn’t looking forward to it. It’s not that he didn’t want to carve out time to spend with Misty, but as he’d said to her himself: ‘Why would we want to spend all our time at some beach when we have much more fun battling Pokemon?’ And Misty had replied that, no, _he_ had much more fun battling Pokemon. For once they were going to do something that she wanted to do. And damn it, she wanted a romantic getaway.

She’d also pointed out, rightly, he was forced to admit, that he’d never tried very hard at any romantic gestures. “Would it kill you,” she’d asked, “to be romantic every once and awhile?” It probably wouldn’t have killed him, but it just didn’t come naturally to him.

She’d also brought up the fact that he had some catching up to do since he would probably go down in history as having made the most unromantic proposal ever. She’d been unloading her worries about their relationship and the future while he was trying to enjoy lunch, so he’d responded, with his mouth full of hamburger, by saying “then maybe we should get married?” And, yes, he had to admit that was probably not the best proposal ever, but it couldn’t be the _worst_ because she’d said yes.

So while he didn’t fully understand why they had to drop everything, leave their Pokemon (even Pikachu! …Who honestly seemed to be looking forward to hanging out with all his friends at the Oak Ranch, so he supposed that was okay, but still…), and just… quit their lives to focus entirely on each other for the weekend, he certainly saw how important this was to Misty. So he didn’t fight it.

“Oh, I’m sure he is,” Lily said from next to Violet. She arched her exquisitely maintained eyebrows. “You know how it is with like, newlyweds.”

Ash took of drink of his cranberry juice and tried to ignore this comment and its inevitable implications.

“I certainly _hope_ I know how it is,” Violet said, sitting up and giving Ash her full attention. “How about it, Ash?” she asked with a wink. “Got any plans for any baby Pokemon masters?”

Ash did not spit out his cranberry juice in surprise. He did, however, accidentally inhale some of it and devolve into a coughing fit.

“ _Violet_ , you’re embarrassing him,” Daisy chided mildly, adjusting her reflector to catch more of the sun’s rays.

“Well, he’s like, our only hope, and all,” Violet countered with a pout.

“We want to be aunts,” Lily explained.

“We’d be like the _coolest_ aunts ever, and you know that,” Violet went on. “And it’s not like we can count on _you_ in the baby making department,” she shot accusingly at her older sister.

Daisy frowned. “Well, you know, it’s just like—what with Tracey working around the clock on his research and me like, doing all these photo shoots and movie roles all over the world—it’s like _so_ not feasible for us to be thinking about having a baby at this point.”

“Feasible” was definitely not a Daisy-word. If Ash was going to make a guess, he’d say that she’d gotten that straight from Tracey himself. Getting Tracey as a brother-in-law was probably the only in-law bonus that he’d gotten from his new extended family. He certainly wouldn’t have expected Tracey to end up with someone like Daisy, but stranger things had happened.

And anyway, she seemed quite devoted to him. Violet and Lily hadn’t settled down, seemingly content with the revolving door of rich and/or handsome men in their lives. Only about a half an hour ago when they’d set out onto the patio to wait for Misty to meet them, the two of them had called out to any attractive, male passerby asking them to rub suntan lotion on their bikinied bodies. The two must have been very concerned about skin cancer, because this had happened several times. A lot of guys offered to give Daisy a hand with her lotion, but she’d always shaken her head and said “spoken for.”

“By who?” Ash had asked, worrying in some vague, but horrified way that he’d be expected to help her out in the suntan lotion rubbing department.

She’d rolled her eyes at him. “Tracey. _Duh._ ”

Ash had scrunched up his face in confusion. “…But he’s all the way back in Pallet Town. He’s not going to visit just to rub suntan lotion on you.”

She’d sighed and gone back to her sun bathing. “You just don’t get it.”

“Besides,” Daisy went on, snapping Ash back to the present, “do you even _know_ what having a baby does to your figure? Yuck!”

“You’re right,” Lily admitted, twirling a finger around a strand of her pink hair. “Better to just let Misty do it. It’s not like she’s got _that_ remarkable of a figure to ruin anyway.”

“Now, now,” Daisy said with a smile that highlighted her beauty mark. “She’s always managed to have a trail of guys swarming after her, so maybe she has some sensational—sensation—” her brow furrowed, “sensationalism,” she decided, “after all, even if she _is_ just the runt.”

The ice in Ash’s drink settled with a clank. “Guys swarming after her?” he repeated.

“I suppose that true,” Lily was forced to admit. “Our little Misty _has_ grown up.”

“Can we get back to the part about guys swarming around her?” Ash asked anxiously.

“Yeah, but that was like, all before you got your act together with her,” Violet said with a wave of her hand. “But no matter how many cute guys asked her out she’d always say no, just like a stick in the mud.”

“She was just waiting for _you_ to get it, but it took you so long,” Daisy complained.

“I was _ten_ ,” Ash said in his own defense.

“No excuse,” Lily said.

“You have no _idea_ like, how big a crush she had on you back then,” Daisy said with a giggle. “She was like, so in love. Whenever anyone would mention your name she’d go red, pitch a fit, and kick something.”

“That doesn’t sound like love,” Ash said warily.

Daisy shrugged. “That’s how it works out in all the rom-coms I’ve been in.”

“But those are movies, not real life,” Ash pointed out.

Daisy lounged back in her chair. “Same diff.”

Ash frowned. When he’d found out that Misty, well… that she liked him, it hadn’t really come as the surprise he felt like it should’ve. It was almost as if they’d been… liking each other forever. It felt natural. …Perhaps because she’d had a crush on him for that long. Finding out _that_ was a surprise… just how long she’d known while he’d been oblivious to everything going on. He’d prefer to make excuses for himself and say that if she’d felt that way then she should’ve just said something or that girls focus too much on romance anyway, and he certainly thought that was reasonable, but… it bothered him that Misty’d felt that way for that long and he hadn’t known—that he’d acted so insensitively _because_ he hadn’t known. He was working on that, but reading Misty was like decrypting an ancient and treacherous language. Still, he tried. She knew he was trying too—and he could decrypt just enough to know that that meant the world to her.

“She _is_ our little sis,” Violet said thoughtfully. “I like, suppose maybe we should look out for her more.”

“Yeah, Ash,” Lily said merrily, “we’ll make sure you’re like, treating Misty right. Girls are delicate, you know.”

Ash gulped. He was silently thankful that he’d never had to battle his three sisters-in-law.

“You gotta pay attention to girls,” Violet added hintingly. “Be _attentive._ ”

“To her needs,” Lily supplied.

“In bed,” Violet finished.

This time, Ash dropped his cranberry juice altogether. The glass smashed against the pavement, splashing small, magenta stains on the cuff of his jeans. It was embarrassing enough talking about that kind of thing with Misty, let alone her sisters!

“Ga-awd! Be more careful, Ash,” Daisy chided. She motioned for the waiter to come over.

“Anyway, Ash, I could tell you about a trick I learned filming a love scene with Zacky Burns,” Lily said impishly, name-dropping like nobody’s business. “It might help you out in the sack.”

Ash was desperately trying to think of a way to escape when the waiter showed up with a dustpan and began cleaning up the glass.

“I’ll have this out of the way in just a minute, sir,” the waiter said. Then he turned to the other three. “And would you ladies like another round of Mai Tais?”

Violet clapped her hands excitedly. “Orgasmic!”

_I gotta get out of here…_ Ash was thinking.

“Hey guys, I’m done for the day,” Misty called, racing across the crosswalk with her duffle bag in hand. Ash looked at her like she was some kind of angel sent to save him from the darkest depths of hell.

“Misty, you’re like, just in time!” Daisy said. “Want a Mai Tai?”

“Well…” Misty said, setting down her bag. “Maybe one before we go.”

“Then I can tell you _both_ about the trick I learned when filming _Battle of the Sexy_ ,” Lily said joyfully. “It’ll come in handy on your weekend for sure!”

“No!” Ash said, getting up abruptly. He picked up Misty’s bag and grabbed her hand. “We ought to get going.”

Misty gave him an odd look. “It’s not like we’re in any rush or anything,” she said. “We’re driving down.”

“Yeah, but…” Ash said with a certain coyote-about-to-gnaw-his-arm-off-to-escape-a-trap quality about his voice. “I really want to get going _now_.”

“What’s gotten into you?” Misty asked, looking at him curiously. “I thought you weren’t looking forward to the weekend, to be honest.”

“I just… really think we should be alone now. Away from here. _Far_ away,” he said loudly over a comment Violet was making about him wanting “to get down to business.”

“Um… okay,” Misty said, and that faint, pleased smile on her face made this not only an escape from Daisy, Lily, and Violet for Ash, but something that made him feeling surprising, and warm and _right_ in himself. It was a rare feeling for him when not attached in any way to a Pokemon battle.

As he led Misty over to his car, listening to the pleasant sound of her happy chattering about the trip, he made the mistake of looking over his shoulder. With their Mai Tai’s in hand, the three ex-Cerulean gym leaders were winking at him and giving him thumbs up gestures. He turned around abruptly, and got into the car to drive away from everything, if only for a weekend—away from everything except Misty.

_Certainly_ away from his three sensational sisters-in-law.


End file.
